


She Keeps Me Warm

by FeaRauko



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 1600s period fic, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, human!Ruby, in the beginning anyway..., more tags will be added as we go, we span a lot of time here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23239984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeaRauko/pseuds/FeaRauko
Summary: Angels don't disobey, don't rebel. It's their murder one.But, sometimes, you just fall...
Relationships: Anna Milton/Ruby
Comments: 31
Kudos: 9
Collections: Demon Void Army - Family Album, SPN Rare Ship Bingo 2020, Takeout Tacos





	1. The Witch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Petrichora_Vellichor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petrichora_Vellichor/gifts).

_“I was stationed on Earth, two thousand years. Just...watching. Silent, invisible...out on the road, sick for home, waiting on orders from an unknowable Father I can't begin to understand…”_

~~~

Anna flexed her wings as she glided over a small village in the northern end of the eastern mountains. She rolled onto her back, looking up at the stars as she floated over the mist slowly rising from the crevices in the range. How long had it been since she had last seen her brothers and sisters in Heaven. _ About sixteen hundred years, _ her mind supplied. _ It was a rhetorical question, _ she snipped back at it.

She rolled and tucked her wings in close to her, pulling into a deep dive, slicing through the night air and down into the fog that rolled close to the ground. She had heard rumors of a witch in this area. Anna rolled most of her eyes at that. 

Generally, what humanity considered to be witches were just harmless herbalists - healers who were simply applying science and medicine that the general populace did not yet understand. Sometimes, however, there were actual witches.

Anna might as well check.

She breathed in deeply as she landed outside the village and pulled her form inward. People wouldn’t be able to see or hear her unless she wanted them to, but nature would react somewhat to her presence wherever she touched, and it had a tendency to set people and animals on edge. Also, even on the astral plane, it just felt a little odd to step on houses and farms instead of being able to weave through them. So, she pressed her form in until it was roughly the size of the average human...and moved into the village.

There was one main road cutting through it. Anna followed it, allowing little tendrils of her grace to stretch out, lightly touching the surrounding dwellings and feeling them for traces of magic. Nothing seemed out of place. The homes were simply full of families who were settling in for the night.

Something pulled at her grace.

Anna flinched away from the contact. _ What was that? _She spread her wings and lept towards where she had felt it. It hadn’t felt like magic necessarily. More like...something had been sensing her back.

But things didn’t usually do that.

Anna followed the feeling to a small hut, somewhat removed from the rest of the village. It was surrounded by trees and a flourishing garden and bordered by a low stone fence. There was a small gate at the front, opening to a stone walkway that divided the yard in half and led to the door of the home. Anna glanced around. On the right side of the yard, she saw a number of food-bearing plants: tomatoes, peppers, various species of squash. Paying more attention to the trees at the back, Anna noticed there were a couple of pear, apple, and plum trees among them. To the left of where the path divided the yard, the garden consisted of herbs such as jewel weed, broad leaf plantain, sassafras, and yellowroot - most of which Anna knew could be used as medicinals for various ailments. There were even a few dogwood trees at the edge of the garden whose bark could be used to help with headaches if a tea was made from it.

It seemed that Anna had found her “witch,” though appearances so far would lead Anna to believe that this was the home of the benign type - the simple herbalist who spent their time helping people only to be thanked by being _ accused _of being a witch. However, Anna remembered that strange pull on her grace…

She tread carefully over the stone path towards the house, tentatively reaching out again, allowing her grace to stretch through the garden. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary there. She reached towards the house.

Something latched on.

Anna recoiled from the contact, but whatever it was clung to her, refusing to release her grace. Anna quickly steeled herself and dove through the wall of the house, ready to deal swiftly with whatever had latched onto her.

She was not ready for what she saw.

It was just...a girl - probably about twenty-five - and she was asleep. Anna quickly glanced around.

There was nobody else - only the girl. Anna moved to the side of the bed and studied her face. It was scrunched against whatever dreams her mind was conjuring for her. There was little threatening about her. In fact - if anything - she looked...scared. And her soul was clinging to Anna’s grace as tightly as her fists were to the thin blanket that covered her.

Anna looked around, studying the place and its contents. It was a simple, one-room abode. There was a wood-burning stove at the back left corner with a table along the left wall in front of it, covered in various cooking utensils and supplies. To the right, there was a desk and chair pushed up against the side wall between the back wall and the foot of the girl’s bed, the head of which was against the front wall. The most suspicious thing that Anna could spy was the long strand of twine strung along the back wall, from which various herbs were hanging to dry. Even so, most of them were common and useful only - as far as Anna knew - for treating simple ailments such as burns and insect bites, and Anna could spot no grimoire or spellbook to go with them.

She looked back down at the girl. So far, she could sense nothing menacing here, nothing evil. There were not even any traces of magic used for _ any _ purposes, much less nefarious ones. But the girl was still strange. How had she sensed Anna’s presence, even in her sleep? How had she been able to react to her so, and even _ cling _ to her like this?

Anna pulled away.

The girl’s face pinched and her body curled in on itself. There was something about her - about all of it. It made Anna curious.

Anna sighed and reached out. She stepped into the girl’s dreams.

_ It was dark, cold. The sound of screams and angry shouting filled the air. _

_ Someone ran past her. _

_ It was _ her_. _

_ She was different though, younger, all red hair and wild limbs as she crashed through the underbrush. _

_ “Find her!” a voice yelled in the distance. _

_ The girl looked back, wide-eyed, before continuing to tear through the underbrush and into the forest. _

_ Anna followed. _

_ The girl’s legs barely seemed to function as such. They wobbled beneath her. She ran slowly, as through molasses. She tripped over everything. The forest was also against her. Roots rose to meet her. Branches and vines reached out and slapped at her and scraped at her limbs. _

_ Suddenly, they were surrounded. Anna looked around to see a mob of angry villagers with torches and pitchforks on all sides. _

_ “The girl dies too!” one cried. _

_ She trembled. “I’ve done nothing!” her voice pleaded. _

_ “She’ll curse us all if we allow her to live!” someone yelled from the back of the crowd. _

_ “It was in her mother’s blood, her grandmother’s blood! Now look at her! They even had the gall to name her ‘Ruby’ and flaunt the curse!” _

_ The girl sobbed helplessly. _

_ Anna frowned, trying to understand. _

_ “We end this curse on our village now!” someone screamed. _

_ The girl trembled next to her and sank to her knees as the horde closed in. _

_ Anna looked down at her. “Wake up.” _

_ The girl blinked at the crowd. She squinted through the tears as though something didn’t make sense. _

_ “Wake up!” Anna shouted. _

_ The world swirled around them. The crowd faded away… _

Anna was back in the hut, standing next to the bed.

The girl’s face scrunched as she rolled over and sat up in her bed. She ran a hand over her face, frowning at the sweat she wiped off of it. She shook her head and flopped back down. Soon, the girl’s breathing evened out as sleep came back to her, seemingly more peacefully this time, but Anna didn’t miss the tears that stained her cheeks.

_ Ruby… _


	2. The Good Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you can only watch for so long.

_ “I mean it. Every emotion, Dean. Even the bad ones. It's why I fell. It's why- why I'd give anything not to have to go back. Anything…” _

_ ___________________________________________ _

_ Fascinating... _

That was the only word Anna could think to describe this. She was accustomed to watching humanity from a distance, never interfering, never getting close; but when Anna draped her wings over Ruby that night to soothe her after stepping out of her dreams - for the first time - Anna had drawn near….and stayed.

Anna watched Ruby stretch when morning came, slivers of sunlight peeking through the curtains to fall across her face and her amber hair that was wildly strewn about. She looked warm, rested, content as she slowly blinked into consciousness. It made Anna feel oddly proud, like maybe she had helped in some small way.

When Ruby slowly sat up, allowing the blanket to slide from her, Anna also slid her wing from the bed to settle it against her back.

Ruby’s eyes went wide. She jumped from her bed and scrambled away, frantically turning and looking around her home. She turned toward where Anna stood, and frowned, tilting her head, eyes unfocused. 

For a moment, Anna wondered if Ruby could somehow see her true form. She stepped closer, studying Ruby’s face, her confused expression mirroring Anna’s own. A moment passed and then another. Eventually, Ruby huffed, rolled her shoulders, and grabbed a bucket as she headed outside.

Anna came back a few times over the next few weeks - _ temporarily_, she told herself - tightening her patrol on most days to the immediate area. It made sense of course. After all, she would need to keep an eye on the strange girl who seemed to be able to interact with her in ways that most humans could not. 

Humans with an extra sense weren't unheard of. There were mediums who spoke to spirits and other supernatural entities. Ruby was probably one with such powers. These abilities were not evil in and of themselves, but they could be misused. Anna decided that she would keep an eye on her to make sure there was nothing more nefarious or demonic happening here.

Anna had been watching humanity for over a thousand years. Occasionally, she was sent on a short mission. Occasionally, she fought the rogue demon. But mostly, she just...watched...and waited. She watched. She waited.

And now - occasionally - she watched Ruby.

~~~

_  
  
_

Anna watched Ruby move around her garden, picking what was left of various fruits and vegetables. It was fall now, so the sweet potatoes, apples and a few other things were coming into season, but many of her plants had run their course through the summer and she was now gathering their final stragglers of the season. Occasionally, she would pause and look around her, almost seeming as though she expected to see someone there.

Ruby picked up her basket full of apples, eggplants, squash, corn, and a few tomatoes and peppers, and headed towards her house. As she opened the door, she paused again and looked behind her, a confused expression on her face as she stepped inside.

Anna followed her.

She watched as Ruby carried the food to the table at the left side of the room. She set most of it aside and selected a few items to wash, using water from the bucket she had pulled from the stream behind the house this morning. After a moment, she set down the sweet potato she was holding and spun around to face the room.

She shewed her lip for a moment. “Is someone there?” she asked softly, looking towards where Anna was standing. She sighed. “Look...it’s okay. As long as you don’t intend to harm me, I have no quarrel with you either, but…” she crossed her arms, “I’ve been having this strange ‘being watched’ feeling since the middle of summer, and I just think it’d be polite of you to show yourself.”

Anna blinked. Etiquette hadn’t exactly crossed her mind.

“Fine.” Ruby waved a hand dismissively. “Be a creeper then, I guess.”

Anna sighed, relieved that Ruby was unbothered by her presence. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about being called a _ creeper _ though...

~~~

  
  


Fall turned into winter, and Anna watched quietly as Ruby moved around the house, blanket draped over her shoulders, checking on various herbs that were hanging to dry and moving some of them to glass jars on her desk.

Not even bothering to look over her shoulder, Ruby’s voice addressed the not-so-empty room. “Are you ever going to show yourself, Spirit?” she asked. 

Anna rolled her eyes. If she only knew...if Anna were to show herself, it would be the last thing that Ruby ever saw.

“I know you’re here.” Ruby huffed. “I also know that when _ you’re _ here, the bad spirits aren’t.”

So, Ruby _ could _ sense other spirits, not just Anna. She must indeed be some sort of medium then...and pretty in tune too. It was true that since Anna had stationed herself in this area, she had dealt with many unclean spirits, demons, ghosts; but while she had expected Ruby and the others around lives to improve, she hadn’t really expected Ruby to so clearly _ notice _ it.

“You come here often...but you won’t talk to me. Why?” Ruby pressed.

Anna chuckled, working to keep it quiet so as to not hurt Ruby’s ears. Even so, the embers in the hearth sprung to life.

Ruby rolled her eyes and continued checking her herbs. “I was plenty warm already, you know.” She sighed. “Or maybe, that’s the only way you know how to talk. Even so...thanks, I guess; but if you burn my house down in the night, I won’t forgive you.” Seeming satisfied with her herbs, she tossed the blanket she’d been wearing onto the bed and settled into her chair, pouring over some books on medicine. 

Anna huffed and the candle on Ruby’s desk lit.

Ruby smirked but didn’t comment.

~~~

Months passed.

As she had for millennia, Anna watched...and waited. Lately, it wasn’t so bad. Lately, she didn’t mind the times in-between missions. More and more often, she watched Ruby. 

There was a young boy at the house today. Anna had seen him a few times in the village. His own house was close by.

Ruby flicked the back of his head as he came running into the house.

“Ow!” The boy looked up indignantly. “What was that for?”

Ruby eyed him with what looked to be some genuine exasperation but no real annoyance. “ You _ do _ realize it’s rude not to knock, right?”

The kid grinned. “Oh shove off, the door was wide open. And whatcha gonna do anyway? Put some scary hex on me?”

Ruby raised an eyebrow. “I might.”

The kid plopped on her bed. “Whatever. I don’t care what people say. I don’t think you could use scary magic if you wanted to.” He grinned up at her. “All you’re really good for is stuff like this.” He held out his leg, showing what looked to be some sort of rash.

Ruby sighed and pulled some suspiciously fresh jewel weed from her desk. “You got into the poison ivy again, I see.” She tisked at him as she began tearing the leaves into a mortar and grinding them. 

The boy cocked his head. “Wait...you usually have to go pick that, ‘cause you say it’s better fresh. When did you start keeping it in here?”

“I don’t,” Ruby replied, casting a quick glare over her shoulder, “but it’s nice outside and I had a feeling I’d be seeing you.” She pointed at a jar on her desk next to the one she’d pulled the jewel weed from. “I had also picked some plantain in case it had been wasps.”

The kid’s mouth fell open. “I take it back. I think you’re a witch after all.”

She swatted at him playfully as she knelt and began applying the poultice to his leg.

~~~

It was the beginning of summer. Ruby was kneeling in her garden, cursing at the tomato plants for not being ready yet.

Anna laughed and let the breeze dance in it.

Ruby blinked and looked up. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

Anna was really beginning to wish she could answer her.

Ruby shook her head. Casting one last look down at the plants, she huffed and tromped back inside. 

Anna looked up at the sky. It was getting dark. The sun had fallen behind the mountains and the brighter stars were beginning to show themselves through the twilight. Ruby would probably be turning in for the night.

Anna looked back down to the ground and around the garden, a thought occurring to her. She bent and touched the leaves of the nearest tomato plant, allowing just a touch of her grace to flow into it. The vine thickened slightly. Anna could feel the nourishment flowing through it and being fed to the fruit. Anna smiled. She touched a few other plants - not all of them as it wouldn’t do for everything to ripen now and there be nothing left for later - but she did help a few of them along to where they would be ready by morning.

At dawn, Ruby walked out, carrying a bucket to get water from the stream. She paused and cocked her head, then turned fully to gaze out at the garden. She set the bucket down and made her way between the rows of plants. She chewed at her lip as she looked down at the tomatoes in particular. “Now, yesterday,” she announced, “I would have sworn you needed another week…”

Anna smiled and ruffled her wings. The wind stirred around them.

Ruby shook her head. “You really are a strange one aren’t you. I don’t think I’ve ever had a spirit help with my gardening before. But then…” a small smirk grew on her face, “I don’t think I’ve ever had spirit keep me warm and chase my nightmares away before either.”

If Anna could sputter, she would have. Of course Ruby could sense her, but she still felt very called out.

“Thanks, by the way!” Ruby called as she walked back to the house and retrieved her bucket. “Maybe someday I’ll actually get to tell you that to your face, huh?” she added cheekily.

~~~

Anna watched Ruby slam the door behind her and spin around to beat her fist against it. “What do I have to do?” she demanded.

Anna watched helplessly.

That morning, Ruby had gone door-to-door in the village, offering some of her surplus from the garden to families that she knew probably needed it.

Anna looked at the still-full basket of fruits and vegetables that Ruby had dropped on the floor.

_ Every single family had turned her away. _

Ruby sank to the floor and pressed her head against the door. “What do they want from me?” she quietly begged of the empty room.

Not that the room was actually empty. It rarely was these days, and Ruby knew that. She could always tell. “You know the funny thing about it, Spirit?” Ruby whispered. She had taken to talking to her to fill the silence, as one-sided as the conversation was.

Anna didn’t hate it.

Ruby turned around and leaned her back against the door. “I actually do have magic in my family,” Ruby continued. “Just...not on my Mom’s side like everyone thinks. All I got from my mom was this red hair; the magic’s from my Dad. He didn’t teach me how to use it. He didn’t practice it himself...but his mom was a witch and his dad was some big time warlock.” She sighed. “But none of them even know that about his parents. It’s not why they’re scared of me.” She clenched her fists and thumped the back of her head against the door. “These superstitious idiots just think I’m some sort of curse because of my red hair! You know, in Europe, the inquisition is even burning red-heads for witches...something about us ‘having the devil’s fire’.”

“I’ve done nothing to them.” Ruby’s voice was thick with barely contained emotion. “I’ve never given them any reason to hate me, or distrust me even a little. They don’t know my family, where I come from. All they know is that I showed up here at fifteen, an orphan, and did my best to make a life among them.” Ruby picked up an apple from her basket and looked at it angrily before throwing it against the back wall. “My parents had come here to get away from persecution, thinking we could escape our past in the New World. It didn’t work. Sure, they didn’t know about the actual magic in our blood, but stigma followed us anyway. When things started looking bad, my uncle - a tanner - took my baby sister and fled back home with her.” She swallowed. “But he couldn’t get passage for all of us.”

Anna knelt in front of her and extended her wings forward, cradling Ruby in them, making a cocoon around the two of them to shield them from the fall chill and the rest of the world, even if Ruby couldn’t really see it.

She seemed to be able to feel it though. Anna watched Ruby slowly relax and wondered at how Ruby could even find Anna to be a comforting presence when she was little more to her than a whisper, a ghost over her skin.

Ruby pulled her knees to her chest and lay her head on them, wrapping her arms around her legs. “Thank you, Spirit,” she sighed.

_ It’s Anna, _ she wished she could reply.

~~~

Anna had been watching humanity for over a thousand years. Occasionally, she was sent on a small mission. Occasionally, she fought the rogue demon. Mostly, she just...watched...and waited. She watched. She waited. She didn’t interfere.

She watched humanity. 

She waited for orders.

She didn’t interfere.

She watched Ruby.

She waited for assignments.

She didn’t interfere in human affairs.

She…

For the last few years, she had been watching Ruby. She was intriguing. She was so full of life and spunk and kindness. Watching Ruby had become one of Anna’s favorite things while she waited. 

She watched Ruby, who - after her parents had been burned and in spite of the way people treated _ her _ \- had developed a passion for herbs and medicine and used this knowledge to _ help _ people rather than hate them. Anna watched Ruby with growing awe and adoration as she went about her life, doing her best when it would have been so, so easy to do her worst.

And Anna watched them accuse Ruby of being a witch.

She waited with hope that they would come to their senses.

She didn’t interfere.

“No!” Ruby screamed as she was dragged from her hut while people from the village trampled her garden, laid their axes to her trees, used their torches to burn her home and everything in it.

Anna watched the embers rise into the cool night sky.

“Please! Don’t do this!” Anna heard Ruby scream. “I haven’t done anything! I haven’t hurt anyone!”

Anna watched in horror as they dragged Ruby to the town center. _ How could they? _ Her wings unfurled of their own accord as they tied Ruby to a giant stake in the middle of the town square. She hovered over them, vibrating in anger.

Anna watched.

Anna held back.

Anna was not supposed to interfere.

People called out false accusations of the horrors Ruby had committed as bundles of wood and kindling were piled at Ruby’s feet. They said her presence had ruined their crops, that she had put a sleeping curse on a young girl, that she had slain a woman’s husband with fever.

One young boy cried and screamed that Anna was good, that she had always only helped them...but nobody listened. They were only full of righteous fury against their witch. 

The town’s leaders laid the torches at the base of the stake.

Anna watched as the wood around Ruby lit.

Anna…

She…

_ Watch. Wait. Do not interfere in human affairs _ \- those were her orders; but sometimes...one can only watch for so long.

And Anna could not watch _ this. _

Anna cried out and rushed the stake. All around the square, people cowered and covered their ears against the sound. She beat her wings and people were thrown by the force of the wind they created. She beat her wings again and the burning wood that surrounded Ruby was scattered through the square, setting carts and huts and shops ablaze. 

The boy, one who had screamed Ruby’s innocence, ran forward and cut at the ropes that tied Ruby to the stake. “Run!” he screamed against the wind. “I’ll lead them the wrong way!”

~~~

Anna knelt beside Ruby as Ruby struggled to light the kindling she had gathered for a campfire, finally achieving a few sparks that she was coaxing into a small flame. Anna breathed onto it, speaking the fire into the rest of the wood.

Ruby let out a breath. “So it _ was _ you.” She pulled her knees into her and squeezed her arms around them. “I wish you would talk to me. You’re powerful, more so than any spirit I’ve ever encountered. Surely…” she sniffed and wiped her palm against her eyes, “surely you can speak.” She rested her head on her knees. “Sorry. I just...could you stay with me for a while? It feels warmer with you here.”

Anna watched tears roll down Ruby’s face and wished she could wipe them.

“I was scared,” Ruby whispered. 

_ I know. I was too. _

“Thank you for saving me.”

_ I shouldn’t have...but how could I not?” _

Anna pulled her wings in close, covering Ruby from the night. As Ruby fell asleep, Anna let her grace sprawl, searching the area, feeling for any presence that posed a threat. She felt nothing. However, she did find…

Well, it seemed that Anna was about to do yet _ another _ thing that she should not do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She says I smell like safety and home  
I named both of her eyes forever and please don't go  
I could be a morning sunrise all the time, all the time yeah  
This could be good, this could be good
> 
> ~She Keeps Me Warm (Mary Lambert)


	3. This Could Be Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After millennia of being the perfect soldier, Anna was now doing a third thing tonight that she absolutely should not do.

_ “Hey, can I ask you something?” _

_ Anna looked up and watched Dean as he rounded the car to lean against the hood next to her. _

_ “What do they want me for? Why did they save me?” _

_ Anna shook her head. “I’m sorry. The angels aren’t talking about it, and...it was after I fell.” _

_ “That’s another question: Why would you fall? Why would you wanna be one of us?” _

_ Anna looked away. The question felt so bizzare to her. He had met angels. How could he think they were better? “You don’t mean that.” _

_ “I don’t? A bunch of- of miserable bastards? I mean...eating, crapping, confused, afraid…” _

_ Anna listened to him list how horrible it was to be human. If he only knew…how could she explain? “I dunno, there’s…” Anna sighed, thinking back, remembering, “loyalty, forgiveness...love.” _

~ ~ ~

_ One foot in front of the other… _

Anna stumbled slightly. _ Feet are so weird _, Anna thought as she righted herself. She took a deep breath, allowing oxygen and grace to flow through the body together, fueling and healing it of its ailments.

It wasn’t kosher to take over a vessel unless absolutely necessary...or without orders; but this body had been abandoned, the soul gone. The young woman had fallen into a coma caused by “too much blood in the brain” - or so the doctors had declared before performing a series of bloodlettings; and now the family had been left mourning over an empty shell that was slowly “dying of sleep.”

Anna stretched her wings and flew back to the woods, landing behind a tree, just far enough that Ruby wouldn’t hear her land. Stepping from behind the tree, she could see the soft glow of the fire and the silhouette of Ruby’s back where she lay curled on the ground, facing away from Anna.

Anna took a few more steps. _ Why? _ Why was Anna doing this? Why had she found a vessel? There was no need to reveal herself to Ruby, no need to speak with her, no reason other than...Anna wanted to.

Anna quietly advanced towards the small clearing. From here, she could now see that Ruby was shivering, and it turned something inside of her. She looked up at the clear night sky. Ruby was human and in the mountain woods at midnight in November with nothing but the nightdress the villagers had dragged her from her bed in and _ of course _ Ruby was shivering. 

Anna swallowed down any nervousness or doubt she was feeling and took the last few steps into the clearing.

“You left for a while, Spirit,” Ruby accused but didn’t turn around.

Anna froze, eyes wide. She dropped her head to her chest and suppressed a laugh. _ Of course Ruby would sense her even before hearing her. _Anna ignored the feeling growing in her chest, fed by the knowledge that - vessel or not - Ruby had learned to recognize her presence instantly. She swallowed, preparing to use this voice for the first time. “I did...I’m sorry.”

Ruby jumped up and spun to face Anna, grabbing a burning limb from the fire as she did so, looking prepared to either run or fight for her life.

Anna held up her hands. “It’s okay. I’m…” Anna wasn’t even sure what to say. It felt bizarre to have someone whom she’d been with nearly every day for the last two years and who had taken comfort in her presence...be afraid of her. “I’m not here to hurt you,” she finally decided to say.

Ruby’s stance relaxed marginally, but her eyes still scrutinized Anna, seeing - Anna speculated - perhaps more than human eyes should be able to perceive. Ruby’s mouth fell open. “Spirit?” she whispered.

Anna sighed, relieved. “Well,” she smiled, “you did keep saying that you wanted to speak with me.”

Ruby stepped forward, slowly, cautiously, until they were standing face to face, mere feet from each other. Ruby tilted her head and ran her eyes over Anna. “You look awfully substantial for someone who’s only been communicating through feelings and the wind.”

Anna blinked. “I...yes.”

“So,” Ruby started cautiously, making a slow circle around Anna, “what..._ are _ you, exactly?”

“I am the one you’ve been calling ‘Spirit.’”

Ruby rolled her eyes as she came back in front of her. “No kidding!” She sounded surprised, which was confusing to Anna since her next words were: “I know _ who _ you are, thanks. I asked _ what _ you are. Is this….” she gestured at Anna’s form, “real?” 

Anna bristled. “Of course I’m real.”

“Okay but...is this some kind of vision or could I, like..._ touch _ you like this?”

_ I would advise against it _, was on the tip of Anna’s tongue. She was still getting used to this body - and it had been ages since she’d taken a vessel - and she could not guarantee that her grace wouldn’t react to the touch and bleed into Ruby. However, that warning was left abandoned in Anna’s mouth as Ruby lifted a hand and touched her fingers to Anna’s cheek. “You could,” she whispered instead.

Anna had worried about what the touch would do to Ruby. What she hadn’t counted on...was what that simple touch would do to _ her. _

It was like lightning, similar to the jolt that she had felt that first night that Ruby’s spirit had reached out and taken hold of her grace, but there was something else...something like fire that burned under her skin and radiated out from the places Ruby’s fingertips brushed.

Ruby removed her hand, but the fire lingered. “Huh,” Ruby said simply, looking curious but altogether oblivious to the heat crawling under Anna’s skin. She turned and moved to sit back by the fire. “Hold on a second…” she turned towards Anna with a scowl as she sat. “Have you been able to do this the _ whole time _ ? If you can talk to me and stuff, why the hell did you wait so long to show yourself?” The sudden aggression in her tone surprised Anna. “So you just, what, didn’t _ want _ to talk to me before now? Wait...is that body even _ yours _, or are you possessing some poor person?” Ruby’s expression grew more and more suspicious as she spoke.

Anna shook her head and moved to sit next to her. She had forgotten how curious and demanding of answers humans could be. She held up a hand, silently asking for Ruby to let her speak. “No. I was not supposed to. I couldn’t. Kind of. And...not exactly.” She searched Ruby’s eyes for understanding.

Ruby frowned.

Anna sighed. “Okay…” she met Ruby’s eyes, “No, I could not have appeared to you like this ‘this whole time.’ I did not meet you this way before now because I was not supposed to. Yes,” Anna pursed her lips for a moment, “I _ did _ wish I could speak with you…” She let that statement hang for a few seconds before continuing. She _ had _ wanted to speak with Ruby, had even communicated with her and helped her in the little ways that she could...and she was certain that Ruby had no idea what a big deal that was for her. Anna was an angel. She wasn’t supposed to... _ want _ things. She sighed and continued. “This body is...sort of mine; but I could not speak to you before now because it’s new to me. I suppose I _ am _ possessing the _ body, _but there is not a person inside with me. It belonged to someone else, but the body was nearly dead when I found it, and the soul had already passed on.” She watched Ruby for a moment. “Does that...satisfy your questions?”

Ruby narrowed her eyes, studying Anna. It was slightly disorienging - having someone actually look at her for the first time in centuries. Anna didn’t dislike it necesarily. She just didn’t know how to react to it.

So she studied Ruby right back.

“I believe you,” Ruby finally said, leaning back. “I don’t think there’s anyone in there with you.” She shifted, sitting a little more comfortably, “Back to my original question though: what _ are _ you?”

“I am an angel of the Lord.”

Ruby snorted.

“You find that...funny?” Anna tilted her head.

“Uh, yeah. Kinda. I mean...some angel _ you _ are.” She chuckled.

Anna scowled at her. “I have always served well.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow at her. “You _ do _ realize that you saved a witch today, right? Aren’t we supposed to be, like...evil and all that? The church - _ your _ people, supposedly - was trying to burn me tonight, but you saved me. Are you sure you helped the right side back there?”

Anna watched the fire and thought about her words. Ruby was not _ entirely _ wrong, but there is no way that letting them burn someone so kind could have been right. “You’re not evil,” Anna finally said. “My father can surely see that...even if his humans can’t.”

“You sure about that?”

Anna nodded.

“Huh…”

They sat in silence for a while, watching the fire, until Ruby broke the silence. “What’s it like...” she asked. “being an angel?”

Anna turned to her. She opened her mouth to respond, but...couldn’t. Strange. She had never really thought about it before. How was she even supposed to answer that. “I’ve...never been anything else. I would have little to compare it to. Would you...be able to describe being a human?” Anna asked back.

Ruby laughed mirthlessly. “Uh, yeah. It’s a battle: that’s what being human’s like. It’s a daily battle not to die or pull your hair out or be hungry or cold. It’s a battle, cause you’re being attacked by the humans around you as well as the elements you live in. It sucks. You’re always screwed, and if it’s not worms getting into your crops, then it’s a drought or an untimely freeze or a plague or people accusing you of cursing their town with magic when you didn’t; but…” Ruby closed her eyes, “but it’s also a cool breeze and warm sunlight on your face, and it’s the feeling of accomplishment when you are able to grow something or do something good in spite of everything. It’s a little boy who isn’t scared of you like everyone else and makes you laugh and sticks up for you. Being human is being surrounded on all sides by things that want to hurt you but still somehow finding good, because there’s a lot of that too.” She opened her eyes and turned her head - still resting on her knees - to Anna. “Does that make sense?”

Anna nodded. A few years ago, it wouldn’t have made much sense, but after spending so much time watching Ruby, it did.

She thought again about what it was like to be an angel. She thought about Heaven. She thought about all of the centuries that she had been sent away from it and alone, waiting, unable to return but also unable to do as she pleased. 

“Confining,” she finally decided.

Ruby’s eyes widened. “Really? But...you have wings. You can go anywhere.”

“But I’m not supposed to.”

Ruby studied her, puzzled. “Huh. So, what are you doing _ here? _” Ruby smirked. “Oh, ‘angel of the Lord,’” she added with a wink.

“Waiting.”

“Waiting?” Ruby furrowed her eyebrows. “For?”

Anna scowled at her. “You’re awfully demanding of answers.”

“Well, you’ve been watching me for a while now. I’m just trying to even things out a bit.” She shrugged and stuck out her tongue.

Anna gave her an indignant look, at least, she did the best she could with these unfamiliar features. “Orders. I wait for orders, then follow them. There is nothing else.”

The wind rustled the leaves around them.

Ruby shivered.

Anna frowned and moved closer, reaching a wing around her.

Ruby leaned back. “Woah, um, I don’t know about angel culture; but most people here have a personal space bubble of more than a few inches.”

Anna scowled. “You’re cold.”

“Okay?”

Anna sighed. “Often, when it’s cold, I have draped my wings over you to keep you warm - especially while you sleep.”

An array of emotions played over Ruby’s face that confused Anna. Should she not have done these things? Should she have just let Ruby be cold? She began to slide her wing back.

“Okay,” Ruby finally said. “But that doesn’t explain what you’re doing _ now. _ You don’t-” Ruby froze, glancing at her own arm, then looking wide-eyed over Ruby’s shoulder. “You have wings,” she whispered with awe.

Anna tilted her head. “You can see them?”

“No, but I can kind of..._ feel _ them.”

Anna thought about that for a moment. “And is that...okay?” Ruby Nodded, and Anna slowly draped her wing over Ruby.

Ruby gasped, then sighed contentedly. “So...wings. That’s what this is.”

Anna smiled at the ground.

Ruby drew her knees back up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Thank you...by the way,” she whispered, staring at the fire.

Anna pulled her wing in tighter around her.

“Will you stay?” Ruby whispered, barely audible over the crackling over the fire and the breeze rustling the leaves overhead. “Not forever, but like...while you’re waiting for orders, can you wait with me?”

Anna looked at Ruby. She had already bent so many rules, but was there really any harm in staying when there was nothing else to do? It’s basically what she had been doing anyway. “Yes.”

Ruby sighed and leaned into her.

Anna realized that she wasn’t sure she could leave if she wanted to. Anna thought more...about her brothers and sisters and how they were “family” but not _ family _ and how even those she had served with and fought beside since the beginning of time would wield their weapons against her too, if it were the will of Heaven.

She swallowed. “Lonely,” she added quietly to her earlier explanation. “Being an angel is lonely.”

Ruby looked up at her, her expression sad. “So I guess that’s why you’ve made a hobby of hanging out with me?” She reached out and poked Anna in the side.

“I…” Anna hadn’t really thought of it that way, but...“yes. Yes, I think you’re right.”

Ruby gave her a sad smile and leaned her head back to stare up at the sky. “Well, you’re gonna have to watch me somewhere else now I guess. I can’t really go back there.”

“Where will you go?”

Ruby hummed. “Not sure. My family’s mostly either dead or gone back to Scotland.” She thought for a minute. “There’s a town...about twenty miles or so south of here if I follow the river down into the valley. I can’t stay - it’s probably the first place they’ll look for me...not to mention that news will spread there quickly of the red-headed witch that can’t even be burned.” She chuckled. “It’s probably the best place to start though. Maybe I’ll at least be able to get a change of clothes and some food before I take off in the mountains in the winter…”

Anna thought for a moment. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like the idea of Ruby alone and with no way to take care of herself. Anna knew - despite what Ruby said - that even if Ruby made it to that town, she’d have nothing to barter with to even get clothes or food. Everything she owned had been burned. She tightened her fists. “I have a better idea,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” Ruby looked at her, eyes somehow portraying both resignation and hope. 

_ Three things, _ Anna thought. After millennia of being the perfect soldier, Anna was now doing a_ third_ thing tonight that she absolutely should not do. She took a deep breath.

“Come with _ me _,” she said.

“To where?” Ruby asked.

“_ Everywhere, _” she promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One foot in front of the other  
Keep breathing just like they taught you  
You politely asked to take a walk with me  
I would've married you there underneath the trees  
Is it real, this thing?  
Is it real, ooh, this thing?
> 
> ~When You Sleep (Mary Lambert)


	4. A Tale of Two Powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little different. Hope you like it.

Come listen to me I will sing you a song

Of witches and dragons and lives that are long

Decide for yourselves to believe or to not

My place is only to recount the plot

Once a witch was to burn and her fires were lit

‘Til a Worm fell upon them and sabotaged it

The witch’s crimes were many and heinous indeed

But before she could burn, by light and wind she was freed

And the town that would burn that bright red-headed witch

Was burned in her place for the dragon did twitch

It’s long tail to dismantle the homes and the shops

And with fire did it burn all the livestock and crops

But later, my friends, did the dragon take shape

Of a tall brunette woman in place of a drake

And she went to the witch, held a hand to her heart

Said, “Never will they harm you, nor will I depart.”

The witch cried, “I am lonely and think I could see

A companion in you, if you could in me.”

Then the witch took the dragon’s hand in her hands

And together the powers left for other lands

To Africa, England, and China they soared

For grander adventures on far distant shores

And where’er they roamed, it seemed many were blessed

For the powers brought bounty and health and protection as guests

So a witch and a dragon who were creatures of dread

Become omens of good and of fortune instead

But woe! To the fool who raised force against one

For the other would raze until vengeance was done

For if you think that we love our mates, my dear friends

What think you of a love that has no human end?

I know not what magic was used on her soul

But I can tell you _ why _ that witch never grew old

The witch held the dragon, Said, “You are my heart.

Be with me ‘til I die, oh Heart, never depart!”

Dragon said, “You are my love, my Love, I shall stay!

But as we are now, _ you _ will leave _ me _ one day”

“Dragons’ lives are long.” Heart sadly replied

“So how could I hope to remain by your side?

For you know I am human, so mortal am I

And you will live on so long after I die”

“You have magic,” Heart whispered

“I don’t want it,” Love mourned

“For it is the reason that I was long scorned”

“But I need you,” Heart pleaded

“No, you don’t,” Love replied

You existed before me and will still when I die

“But I love you,” Heart contended

“I love you, too,” her Love cried

“But you know it’s unnatural for your life to be mine.”

“You have magic,” Heart sobbed

“I have magic,” Love sighed

“Never will I leave you. I’ll remain by your side”

And so did that witch for her dragon, her heart

Find a way to live on and to never depart

And if you look to the sky, even to this day

You just might see these powers, good omens, I say

  
  


Anna wrapped her arms around Ruby’s waist from behind and rested her chin on her shoulder as they listened to the bard.

Ruby tilted her head a little to give Anna room. “This is my favorite song,” she whispered.

Anna scoffed. “Most of it is wrong.” She scowled across the square where people were asking the bard questions about his tale. “We didn’t attack the town, and you never committed those crimes of which you were accused.”

Ruby chuckled. She turned and pressed a kiss to Anna’s temple. “He got the important stuff right.”

Anna scowled. “I don’t have a tail…”

Ruby threw her head back and laughed then turned in Anna’s arms. She reached down and took one of Anna’s hands. “Come on, ye ol great, grumpy dragon. We better get out of here before we draw attention.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She leaned in and ghosted a kiss across her Love’s lips. “Where to this time?”

Ruby grinned through another quick kiss. “I’m feeling Paris today.”

Anna squeezed Ruby’s hand, and with a flutter of wings they were gone.


End file.
